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Placing Your Interest in Pinterest

Posted on 01/30/2012

By now you know that thanks to technology, companies have been able to reach consumers on a large scale. Maybe you’ve been using social media sites like Facebook to reach your customers or even tweeting to your followers on Twitter.

Now there may be another site to add to your online marketing efforts. Pinterest is a website that allows users to bookmark and organize their favorite things. Simply put, Pinterest allows you to “pin” your favorite posts onto virtual pin boards filled with your specific interests. And as a marketing professional, wouldn’t you want to be on your customers’ lists of the things they love?

For example, if you see a recipe you like on the site, you can organize it onto your recipe board. Then later, you go back and look it up on that board when you’re ready to cook. Although people use the site for craft ideas, wedding inspiration and a variety of other recreational uses, don’t underestimate the value of the site. Get started by logging on to pinterest.com and playing around with the site.

Here are some ways that you can use Pinterest for marketing to connect with your customers on a whole new level.

Your Logo
The minute you make it onto somebody’s pin board, the more recognition you get. Immediately all of that person’s followers will see it on their newsfeed. Pinterest uses a photo, and then users click on it and are taken to a website. If you can get your customers to add your logo to their pin board and link it to your website, you automatically have new people looking at your logo and seeing that your current customers like you. It’s a great option because people place trust in businesses that their friends say they like, simply because people tend to trust their friends.

Products
One of the unique features of Pinterest is that it separates everything into topics. One of the more interesting genres to marketing professionals is the “products” genre. This is where users can make pins showcasing their favorite products. If you have a quality product that your customers love, you can get them to make a pin about it. Your company could even use its page to make a pin board called “our products.” Then let your customers know that you have a Pinterest account and tell them to follow you just like you would with a different social media site. The more customers you have repinning your products, the more eyes you have on your company.

Web Site Content
You or your customers could pin anything that you would normally post about on Facebook or Twitter. Make sure you use an interesting photo and caption, because that is all users see upon first glance. If it is interesting enough content, users will click and be taken to your website. Did you write a particularly interesting blog post? Maybe you have an article that deserves some recognition. Don’t go overboard with posts, since Pinterest is used to bookmark favorites. That means your company needs to pick their favorites to post about on Pinterest, so customers won’t have their feed bogged down with posts from your business and become annoyed.

While Pinterest may not suit every company’s marketing strategy, it may be worth a look to see if you can pin down some new customers.